FOX colleagues remember Darrell Waltrip as entertainer, trailblazer

When Darrell Waltrip, Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds came together for one of their earliest broadcasting collaborations -- a Saturday Busch (now Xfinity) Series race at Phoenix for TNN seems to be the consensus recollection -- the chemistry clicked. Those fledging efforts held so much promise, Joy says, that his agent took the tape of the broadcast to the powers that be at FOX Sports, NASCAR's newest broadcast partner. "That convinced them that there was some great potential for the three of us together," Joy says, "more so than any of the individual parts and pieces paired together with other people." Joy held the quarterback role with his play-by-play efforts, McReynolds explored the tactical side with his crew chief background, but Waltrip brought something different to the color analyst role. His Hall of Fame driving career gave him racing cred, but his penchant for being one of the sport's best talkers gave him an uncanny comfort with the cameras rolling. What FOX executives saw in translation was the potential for Waltrip to be for NASCAR what John Madden was to the NFL. "Entertaining has always been in his DNA," Joy says. "I think more so than any previous analyst, Darrell saw the opportunity to not just inform and educate people about this sport, but to entertain them as well. But that became a very important part of our three-part challenge to inform, educate and entertain. Darrell brought the entertainment." After a run of 19 seasons, a key piece of that entertaining broadcasting chemistry will leave this summer. Waltrip, 72, announced Thursday that this season will be his last in the FOX Sports booth. The news prompted an outpouring of appreciation on social media from fans and well-wishers, but closer to home, Waltrip's broadcasting colleagues offered their personal tributes in conversations this week with NASCAR.com. RELATED: Waltrip to retire after 19-year run "To me, the list of things that Darrell has brought to NASCAR broadcasting is endless, and I think it's been there from Day 1," McReynolds said. "He's informative, he's clever, he has fun, he's always light-hearted. He's had some good days and bad days, don't get me wrong, but I don't know if I've ever really seen Darrell Waltrip down." It's an uplifting impact that four-time champion Jeff Gordon saw early on, both as a competitor from the driver's seat and later as a fellow analyst upon his addition to the FOX Sports booth for the 2016 season. "DW changed the sport on and off the track," said Gordon, who joined Waltrip in the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year. "The stats on the track speak for themselves, particularly as we roll into Bristol. What he did on the track -- his wins, the championships and laps led. Then, what he did with FOX, as the network came into NASCAR, to elevate the sport and expose it to millions more fans. DW helped the broadcast introduce drivers, like myself, to viewers, and brought a different perspective on how races are broadcast. I tell him all the time that he's a Hall of Fame driver, but he has equally contributed to the sport as a broadcaster." [caption id="attachment_178126" align="aligncenter" width="850"] Courtesy of FOX Sports[/caption]

Beginnings

Before the FOX Sports core of Joy, Waltrip and McReynolds joined forces, there was a level of familiarity given their long-running backgrounds in stock-car racing. To hear McReynolds phrase it, "We knew each other, but we didn't know each other." "None of us knew what to expect," he added. "It's almost like when you pair a new driver with a new crew chief with a new team. You think you've got it all right, but you really don't know until you start the season. But it didn't take me long to realize that we've got something special here." Those bonds came through in those Saturday matinee races, which unknowingly would become their audition tapes for a more prominent stage with FOX Sports. What also emerged was a convivial spirit that would last for nearly two decades to come. MORE: Darrell Waltrip's career in pics "I think the best thing about doing those TNN races, was that for Larry and Darrell, it wasn't work. It wasn't their day job," Joy says. "Their day job was racing -- Larry on the pit box, Darrell in the race car. TV was something to do that was fun, but wasn't a chore. And for 19 years, as much hard work as is involved in getting this done, it's still fun. We started out insisting it was going to be fun, and we've kept that same attitude -- all three of us, and now Jeff Gordon as well -- for 19 years." Waltrip quickly made those early FOX telecasts his own, not only with his folksy yarns and country music references but with his signature "Boogity, boogity, boogity!" call to start each race. Waltrip also is credited with christening FOX's mobile studio as the Hollywood Hotel, providing a nod to his former crew chief turned broadcasting teammate, "Hollywood" Jeff Hammond. [ndmsvideo vid="6022977393001" iframe="true" play="false"] "It's little catch phrases and the way his mind works," Hammond says. "He's always looking for something to spice it up. He embellished it and embraced it." [caption id="attachment_178125" align="alignleft" width="300"] Courtesy of FOX Sports[/caption] The first race of Waltrip's FOX Sports tenure became a turning point for the sport, but for the most somber of reasons. The network's debut came Feb. 18, 2001, with stock-car racing's biggest prize, the Daytona 500. Waltrip cheered from the booth as his brother, Michael, came under the checkered flag first to claim his breakthrough victory in NASCAR's top series. But the elation and attention quickly turned to concern for former rival Dale Earnhardt after his fatal crash in the final lap, the details of which only became public after the 500's on-air window had closed. "We're all riding an emotional high as that checkered flag fell at Daytona, and in less than five minutes, it's like somebody jerked the ladder out from under us and we're all eating the floor at the same time when the realization of what's going on here hit," Hammond said. "Yes, for Darrell to show that side, Michael was leading but Darrell was battling good and bad at one moment, and he's our lead guy. It was a day that we all found out how challenging our second job or our passion for the sport can swing and what you can be faced with in the blink of an eye." NASCAR was back the following weekend at Rockingham, making an emotional attempt to return to a hollowed sense of normalcy, even with flags at half-staff and tributes everywhere. In a testament to his faith and the respect he had earned within the garage, the track asked Waltrip to offer the pre-race prayer. He opened by asking all of those assembled to join hands.

The impact

Legacies worthy of consideration for the NASCAR Hall of Fame are unicorns. Rarer still are the figures in the sport with dual legacies. Junior Johnson did so as a pioneering driver and then team owner; Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons followed suit with prominent careers as champion drivers and beloved broadcasters. Buddy Baker and Neil Bonnett are both Hall of Fame hopefuls this year, both with rich driver-broadcaster pedigrees. Waltrip's blue jacket from the NASCAR Hall has long been secured, but his larger-than-life persona in the booth adds a compelling chapter to his story. "This is not taking anything away from any other driver who has migrated to the broadcast booth and became a broadcaster," McReynolds said, "but I do think we'll look back and know that Darrell Waltrip moved the bar and he moved it a long way." [caption id="attachment_178002" align="aligncenter" width="922"] Photo courtesy of FOX Sports[/caption] Echoed Hammond: "When Darrell came along, Darrell took it to not another level, but to two levels above. He had a gift of gab. A lot of times we liked to laugh about it and put it in the context of how he was kind of the used-car salesman for NASCAR. He always had a line, he always had a comment and he always had an opinion. For that reason, he alienated a lot of the veterans, but he energized a lot of the new fans and gave them the opportunity to really differentiate the good guy and bad guy when it came to race car drivers."

Final wishes

Waltrip told The Tennessean that he plans to spend more time with his family, which has grown in recent years. His daughter Jessica's first child, Luisa, was born 14 months ago, meaning Waltrip's dutiful wonderment as a grandfather is in full swing. One transition begins, but another era will end in the FOX Sports booth on June 23. With nine races remaining in Waltrip's tenure, we asked the broadcasting colleagues who have been with him from the beginning what their wishes would be for his retirement. Mike Joy: "Be busy, be engaged, stay off the couch, and come back and say hey when the spirit moves him. Don't be a stranger. I see many people retire from doing something they love and have a hard time finding another passion to get as excited about. Darrell has business interests, he has his car dealerships, there's grandchildren now and there's some traveling that he and (wife) Stevie want to do. That's great, but I think it's hard to replace the roar of the crowd, whether that's in the grandstand or on social media or just in the phone calls and questions that come up on a daily basis. That's a very, very hard thing to replace. So I think my best wish for him would be, don't be a stranger. Come around and see us." Jeff Hammond: "There'll be other things you'll want to do. Understand like you did with your driving career, he didn't want to let that go. He wanted to race trucks. It's hard to let go of something that you care so much about and is so much a part of you, and realize you have to pass it on. There is going to be, mentioning the grandkids, hopefully someday if Darrell so chooses and it works out that they want to race and they become popular racers, it's like the future is coming. Sometimes the future is ahead of you and it's hard to catch up with. You've got to be willing to let it go and realize you did your job and did it well and hey, have fun with what was." Larry McReynolds: "Pretty simple, just be happy and enjoy. Whether you sit on the front porch every day and drink coffee with the dog at your feet, whether you're on the golf course every single day, whether you're traveling, whether you and Stevie have that grandbaby every day, it does not matter to me as what I consider one of my closer friends, just enjoy these years."